Death to All Sacred Cows: How Successful Business People Put the Old Rules Out to Pasture (Hardcover)

by David Bernstein (Author), Beau Fraser (Author), Bill Schwab (Author) "How do you spot a Sacred Cow?..." (more)
Key Phrases: success breeds success, Sacred Cow, Corporate Culture, Sire Records (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Written by the owners of advertising agency The Gate Worldwide, this book aims to take the sacred cows of business out to pasture, showing how adages like always trust your research, success breeds success and the customer is always right, are not only old and tired but may lead a business completely astray. At first the book's quirky, humorous style is a welcome change from drier business books, but after a while this chattiness starts to distract from the advice, which tends to be old itself, less than cutting edge. For instance, the Super Bowl XXIX Budweiser campaign in which frogs croaked out the company name was clever, but is now 12 years old; likewise, one discussion of Nike harks back to the Michael Jordan era. The authors may be experts in their field, but this book leaves the reader asking, Where's the beef?
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
"Teams Create The Best Solutions."
BANG.

"Always Trust Your Research."
BANG.

"It's Okay To Put Up With Jerks, If They're Talented."
BANG.

When you think about it, there are a lot of Sacred Cows grazing lazily in the halls of corporate America. And we think it's time someone shot them. Dead.

Don't get us wrong. While the authors have nothing against cows in general (they love steak), they do have a problem with Sacred Cows. Blindly doing things because . . . well . . . that's the way they've always been done. Formulas may be comforting, but they rarely work in the real world.

This is the funniest--and truest--business book you'll ever read. Not only do the authors demonstrate how to identify and kill the Sacred Cows in your workplace, they also reveal brilliant alternatives that will put your career in overdrive and help make your business more profitable, innovative, and happy.

From branding ("Branding Is Expensive." BANG.) to leadership ("Follow The Leader." BANG.) to hiring ("Only Hire Someone Who Has Done The Job Before." BANG.) no Sacred Cow is left standing.

Oh, and here's another Sacred Cow of business books:

"No one reads flap copy."
BANG!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; First Edition edition (March 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401303315
• ISBN-13: 978-1401303310
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #200,833 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining Argument on How to Break from the Status Quo, March 12, 2008

By	Julia Kadison (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This very funny and wise business book is based on the assumption that most middle managers today are intellectually lazy, making decisions based on the comfort of long established rules, formulas, actions, or as the authors charmingly refer to them; Sacred Cows. While initially useful, these Sacred Cows remain in place even though the company, the consumer or the market place have long since evolved.

Death to all Sacred Cows is a non-business book, business book. The authors intelligently and with a lot of humor advocate original thinking and reasonable questioning of the status quo as the only way to make a serious mark whether you are a company competing against a market leader or an individual trying to advance your career.

The authors have done a lot of research to back up their beliefs, using vivid global, current and historical examples of entrepreneurs, cultures or company's to back up their contention that Sacred Cows need to die.

A fun and worthwhile read. Would get 4-1/2 stars if Amazon allowed 1/2s.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Insightful, March 12, 2008

By	idlewyld (Montclair, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

Is it an oxymoron for a business book to be smart AND entertaining? Well, this is a funny AND intelligent business book, best described as The Harvard Business Review meets The Daily Report!

While I know I will benefit from reading business books, I usually avoid them. They tend to be dense or based on an idea that is impossible to execute. More spin than practical application.

Death to All Sacred Cows, like Tipping Point or more recently, Freakonomics is different. It advocates an approach versus a tedious and not believable "Ten steps to riches" formula. While I never remember the ten steps other business books lay out in excruciating detail, I certainly can remember, understand and apply an approach such as the one laid out in this memorable book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Celebration of Business not Usual, March 12, 2008

By	R. Sullivan (Boston) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a business professional at a large, well-known company, I have always struggled with understanding why companies like mine become paralyzed by bureaucracy and fear new approaches. Despite our best attempts, we can't seem to innovate.

The authors of this intelligent and refreshing book give this phenomenon a name -Sacred Cows. And, with humorous insight, explain how to identify a Sacred Cow, why these lumbering beasts hinder innovative thinking and ultimately a company's growth.

To help the intrepid reader, they name 19 of businesses laziest sacred cows (and a number of lesser indiscretions which they humorous refer to as Sacred Veal) and in detail, explain how each limits creative thinking and needs to die.

What I found so refreshing about this book is that I have erroneously accepted many of their examples as gospel through out my career, but now realize my mistake and gleefully go about killing them at every opportunity.

Death to all Sacred Cows is book full of wisdom delivered with a wink.